Monday, April 27, 1998 Last modified at 1:52 a.m. on Monday, April 27, 1998

Virginia town declares victory over vultures

LA Times-Washington Post News Service

They tried cannon fire, air horns, balloons, firecrackers and cages, but for almost a decade, Leesburg, Va., officials could not get rid of the hundreds of vultures roosting in trees throughout the town every winter.

Until Tuesday. As dawn broke on the seventh day of Operation Vulture Harassment, every last buzzard was gone, and Leesburg declared victory.

The man in charge of vulture eradication, Martin Lowney, said the birds had migrated to a wooded area three miles west of town, and he was pretty sure they weren't coming back.

Lowney, Virginia director of wildlife services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was called in last month by desperate town officials. During the last week, he and two assistants shot flares and firecrackers at the trees for two hours each day. Their goal was not to kill the vultures - they are protected as an endangered species - but to frighten them.

In seven days, the number of birds has gone from 345 to zero. Compared with some of his previous battles against vultures in Mississippi and Alabama, the Leesburg job wasn't hard, Lowney said.

"This group was easy to disperse because they were spooked," Lowney said.

When Lowney took to the streets of Leesburg's buzzard-infested neighborhoods last week, armed with a track-and-field pistol, and began shooting pyrotechnics into the sky, some bystanders thought that effort was doomed.

"Hey, you'll never get those vultures to leave. Give up!" one motorist screamed.

But Tuesday, with the skies devoid of the scavengers, residents conceded that Lowney's services might have been worth the $8,000 they cost the town.

"There's a marked improvement," said Jack Baumgartner, 69, whose yard has been home to at least 100 vultures each winter since 1992. "It's been awful - the smell, the droppings. They destroy the trees."

Still, many residents weren't ready to celebrate after only one vulture-free day.

"You just wonder, what do they plan to do next?" said town resident Richard Nemetz, 62. "What do they want? It's an interesting problem for everyone, in that they just always seem to come back."

But Lowney said the previous noise campaigns didn't work because they didn't last long enough.

The vultures first were seen in Leesburg more than 10 years ago, but their numbers had doubled in the last few years. They spent their summers elsewhere, arriving in Leesburg about Halloween and staying until April. Residents became increasingly annoyed at the invasion, with smelly droppings and road-kill leftovers littering patios, cars, streets and yards.

No one seems to know why they picked Leesburg.

"We cannot figure that one out," Lowney said. "I do not know why they chose Leesburg over an area where there were no people. Maybe these vultures like people - living in a subdivision, watching the evening news."

Peigi Wagar, whose trees hosted many of the birds, said she didn't mind the creatures.

"There isn't a more glorious sight than to see those birds fly," said Wagar, a hospital volunteer. "They don't do anything but look for a place to sleep for two months, and they're gone. I rather enjoy them and hope to see them again next year."

That won't happen, Lowney promised. "I have never failed at dispersing a vulture roost," he said. If they should ever return, he added, "I will stay until they're gone."